Behind the Scenes at Artesian, the 'World's Best Bar'

Head bartender Alex Kratena has helped to make the lounge at London's Langham Hotel one of the finest cocktail joints in the world—with the help of a slushie machine.

When Alex Kratena took over as head bartender at Artesian, the David Collins–designed lounge tucked inside the Langham Hotel in London, he made an unusual purchase: a slushie machine. “Everyone thought it was totally bonkers, and that I was crazy,” he recalls now. “We had to take all the ridiculous labels off it, and paint it black to cover the flashing lights.” Kratena held firm, though, buoyed by a maxim that has steered his entire bartending career: Always question everything. “There are a lot of preconceptions, and people don’t ask why enough,” he explains.

Kratena could never be accused of such complacency: The slushie machine was his secret weapon for a new menu of high-end riffs on kitschy cocktail classics he’d dubbed "Twisted Disco." It was a bold and risky move for a chic lounge inside a five-star hotel, but behind the theatrics was an obsession with quality. Rather than filling the machine with sour mixes or artificial colors, Kratena added fresh-squeezed pineapple juice, coconut water, two kinds of rum, and some squirts of lime juice to create the ultimate piña colada. These drinks became instant classics among his peers, catapulting his workplace into the upper echelons of drinking culture. It has earned countless plaudits over the last four years as the best bar in the world from Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited awards to Drinks International—all thanks to the jolly Kratena.

Born in the Czech Republic, he ended up in London a decade or so ago after several years working in Tokyo nightclubs. During a brief visit to his sister, who was already living in Britain, he snared a bartending job before moving to Artesian just as the hotel was undergoing extensive renovations. “It was a challenging time because the general impression of the public was that the hotel was closed even though it was open. But it was a great chance to get on speed, and get consistent,” he remembers. Soon, his talents becoming clear: Kratena was appointed head barkeep, with major plans for his new fiefdom. “We didn’t want to create another boring hotel bar,” he explains.

He’s certainly fulfilled his mission, changing the menu and its theme entirely every year. Kratena is adventurous in playing with flavors, whether tasking Martini & Rossi to create a custom vermouth for the hotel so its martini would taste unique, or using fermented kombucha in the Camouflage, a gin-based drink served in a golden pineapple. Artesian is well known for conversation-starting quaffs, including The Magician, which uses the classic Czech bitter liqueur Becherovka as its base. Fittingly, the drink is served in an intricate porcelain vessel also drawn from Czech traditions, where the straw is hidden in the handle. It’s a nod to the cups produced during spa towns’ heydays when elegant Victorian ladies would promenade around town, Kratena says; they needed to sip refreshments daintily without tossing their heads back in ungainly way.

Likewise, since Oscar Wilde wrote much of The Picture of Dorian Gray while staying at the hotel, Kratena decided to create a drink, and vessel, inspired by the fin-de-siècle masterpiece: Forever Young. For this refreshing, vodka-based drink, the glass was hidden behind a mirror, through which poked a single straw. “All you saw while you were drinking was yourself, like Dorian Gray used to do, and there was opium incense behind the mirror too, so you smelled that while you drank it.”

He’s finalizing the recipes and barware for next year’s new cocktail list, which will debut on July 2. Its theme will center on Surrealism, inspired by Dalí’s fondness for outré gala dinners. He and his cohorts rarely spent as much effort on conceiving drinks as they did on the food, and Kratena intends to rectify this omission. “We’re going to put all reason and logic to one side,” he teases. “Imagine: Have you ever worn a cocktail glass? Well, you will.”

THE WORLD'S BEST BARS, ACCORDING TO KATRENA

Kratena travels frequently, and here are the world’s best bars, according to the head of the world’s best bar.

The NoMad Bar, New York City: “I absolutely love NoMad Bar—the drinks are incredible, and I really appreciate if a place is designed in such a stunning way. It’s an element that is often overlooked.”

Aviary, Chicago: He’s wowed by the way that Chicago’s Aviary is laid out with such operational precision. “If you look at it the way a chef would, it’s not unusual, but prior to them, no one had really organized a bar to such an extent.”

Bar Termini, London: Closer to home, Kratena is a regular at Tony Conigliaro's new closet-sized Bar Termini in London’s Soho, an Italian-inspired joint that doles out cheap espresso by day and small-batch cocktails in the evening. “It’s a place where you just want to hang out all the time.”